Our Voice: Web page must come down

An email from Gov. Jay Nixon’s office alerted the News-Leader to a website that claims to track “Missouri’s money in states expanding Medicaid.”

The site is part of the “Official Missouri State Website” — www.mo.gov.

There, you can find information about filing taxes, becoming a foster parent, finding your legislator, public health agencies, product recalls and reserving a campsite at a state park.

You can also find out what Nixon thinks about Medicaid expansion.

It is no secret that the governor would like the General Assembly to pass expansion to qualify for the Affordable Care Act’s federal dollars.

It is also no secret that the News-Leader editorial board agrees with that position.

But we are not at all comfortable with the use of the state’s “official” web page to promote it.

The page is full of important information to help Missourians navigate state services. It certainly has a pro-Missouri point of view, touting our cities, parks, businesses and agriculture. The information on the page is factual and responsible.

The page called “We Paid For It” is much more than straightforward information. It is a slanted view of a very complicated and controversial proposal to make Medicaid available to people earning 138 percent of the federal poverty rate.

Above a map of the United States, with Missouri in bright red, the page reads: “Strengthening and reforming Medicaid would bring the federal dollars that Missourians send to Washington back to Missouri to provide health care coverage to an additional 300,000 working Missourians making no more than $32,913 a year for a family of four. As a result of the legislature’s failure to act, those dollars — $5.47 million a day, $2 billion a year — are now being spent in other states. Some states are implementing innovative state-based reforms to promote personal responsibility and make health care more efficient and effective.”

By hovering over the states in green, you can get such information as “Missourians will pay $20.5 million in taxes this year to cover 58,000 additional citizens in Iowa.”

Hover over the red state in the middle of the map to learn, “Gov. Jay Nixon has proposed strengthening and reforming Medicaid.”

The governor’s office says the cost of the page and the interactive map is nothing because it was done by in-house staff.

We say that this is a taxpayer-funded political ad for the governor and should be taken down.